OPPO F3 Unboxing and Initial Review

With only a day left before the anticipated launch of the OPPO F3, we’re sure everyone’s excited to know what it brings to the table and of course, the price.

So while you’re at it, we’re going to give you a sneak peak as to what the OPPO F3 is as a smartphone, and perhaps, you might get an idea as to whether it’s the right phone for you.

Packaging

OPPO is one of those companies who are generous in terms of packaging. Aside from the usual Charger, USB Cable, Headset, and manuals, you also get a clear case for your unit.

Design and Build Quality

The OPPO F3 borrows the design language of its bigger brother with its metal and glass body, with the dual front camera setup on a smaller 5.5-inch display.

The smaller form factor makes the F3 more ideal for one-handed operation and still retains the premium feel and sense of sturdiness.

The power button and SIM Card slot (Which has space for two Nano SIM Cards and a MicroSD Card) are both located on the right, while the volume rockers are on the left side of the device. At the bottom is the headphone jack, a microphone, a single speaker, and a standard MicroUSB port.

One thing i noticed was the absence of a notification light, which means you’ll have to regularly check your phone for notifications, which is a hassle.

Display

The 5.5-inch Full HD display is very bright, and sports the signature liveliness that comes with OPPO displays with rich colors and sharp text.

Performance

The OPPO F3 is powered by a MediaTek MT6750T Octa-Core CPU clocked at 1.5GHz along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The choice of SoC isn’t a surprise, given that it’s positioned at a lower price point. Here are some benchmark scores versus the F1s and the Vivo V5.

OPPO F1s

Vivo V5

OPPO F3

AnTuTu

39844

41300

52901

Geekbench Single-Core

644

593

767

Geekbench Multi-Core

2509

2434

2782

Geekbench Compute

1383

1327

2172

While benchmark scores don’t always reflect actual performance, it gives us more or less a baseline. In our full review, we’ll be testing the F3 with general tasks and games to see how these numbers translate.

Rear Camera

Despite adequate lighting, photos taken by the 13MP main camera came out a bit dim, but details and sharpness are adequate, and color accuracy is more or less spot on.

Front Camera

While we liked the overall quality of the selfies taken by the F3’s dual front facing cameras, the bokeh effect still needs some refinements as some portions appear pixelated, and other portions appear blurred when they shouldn’t be.

Software

The F3 runs on ColorOS 3.0 on top of Android Marshmallow, which brings about the familiar look, icons, and apps from the manufacturer, along with the slew of options for customizing the device. Yep. There’s still no double tap to sleep, when there’s double tap to wake.

The simple and easy to use camera software returns here with a few modes that you can play with. There’s Pro mode which lets you individually adjust each element of your shot. As with the F3 Plus, the Bokeh option can still only be enabled when in Beauty mode.

Audio

OPPO has collaborated with Dirac Research AB to develop Real Sound Technology, which is supposed to enhance the sound to provide a live-like performance when using headphones. You can choose from a number of presets, or create your own custom setting.

It’s useful if you don’t like the default sound quality which leans more on the balanced side, and is already good without tweaking. The speaker is also quite loud, and doesn’t produce audible distortions at high volume.

Initial Thoughts

The OPPO F3 is looking like a decent mid-ranger with a few quirks here and there. We’ll be doing more tests to see how long the battery can last, if its also good for gaming, and how its cameras fare in less than ideal lighting conditions.

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Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.